Leader of Durham County Council. Retweets are not endorsements but used to create debate. Views are my own
North East, England
Joined April 2024
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Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
He was there to discuss the Reform Pre Budget statement, they wanted to talk about a tweet.
No other leader would be subjected like this. It might be mentioned, but it would not be the whole interview.
This is standard practice and it deliberately short changes the audience.
No reply to County Durham’s letter either
Fourteen days. No response.
After being ignored by the Immigration Minister, I wrote directly to the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, two weeks ago, demanding an immediate halt to further asylum dispersal into Sunderland.
I gave the Home Office a clear 14-day deadline to respond. That deadline has now passed without a single word.
Sunderland is already accommodating more than twice the proportion of people receiving asylum support that our population would indicate. This is not equitable distribution. It is an unsustainable burden on our city.
Again, I want to be unambiguous: I am not seeking a reduced allocation. I am seeking an end to asylum dispersal in Sunderland. Full stop.
As residents will be aware, our housing stock is under significant pressure. Local families are struggling to secure homes, yet the Home Office continues to treat Sunderland as a destination for the consequences of national immigration policy failures. This cannot continue.
I requested an immediate freeze on new placements, a halt to further accommodation procurement, and clear answers regarding the Home Office’s plans for our city. None of these have been forthcoming.
My administration is now actively reviewing every existing arrangement and every lawful avenue available to challenge and resist further dispersal. We will pursue all appropriate options.
I will not accept decisions being taken in Whitehall without proper engagement while Sunderland is left to manage the consequences. The Home Secretary has had the opportunity to respond. The silence is unacceptable. Why does the political class hold us in such contempt here in Sunderland?
Sunderland has reached its limit.
No more dispersal.
Sunderland first, always.
@reformparty_uk @ReformUkWear
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
😂 Nick Ferrari bursts out laughing as Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is forced to sell the latest government gimmick live on @LBC
Reynolds looked thoroughly embarrassed as he tried to sell the plan to scrap import tariffs on a list of “everyday essentials”.
When Ferrari asked him which products were included and what the actual savings would be, Reynolds immediately started dampening expectations, sheepishly admitting these were “not huge reductions” before reeling off the list: baked beans, chocolate, gherkins…
That’s as far as he got. Ferrari could not contain himself and burst out laughing. 😭
Nick then pointed out that the Conservatives have called the projected saving of £21 per year “derisory”.
You could see Reynolds was mortified reading it out. Imagine the brief he opened this morning and realised he had to go on air and sell this to the public. 😬
What a farce. Even on the government’s own figures, this works out at roughly 40p a week for the average household. Forty pence a week. You lucky people.
Another pointless gimmick that will have zero material impact on people’s lives.
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
Tories have learnt nothing
They broke the nation & imported millions
Never forgive never forget
Like the Cayman Islands?
Those bankrolling Farage apparently love Britain so much they'd rather be anywhere but Britain.
independent.co.uk/news/uk/po…
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
I really want to let this go and put the whole nasty experience behind me - I even shut down my account but people need to understand who these people are. The disgusting abuse that I continue to receive day in and day out from RESTORE BRITAIN and the misogynistic scumbags within the party is just becoming unbearable. Now even their branch managers like this ⬇️ are joining in.. a Navy Veteran no less. @JoeLayton96 shame on you. Leave me and my family alone !!!!! @RupertLowe10 ie Alistair- sort these boys out or I will do the same as Michelle Bass. We will simply not tolerate this behaviour anymore! @claire_adams694 @ThatAlexWoman
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
Oh dear, Andy. More faces than Big Ben Burnham skewered by his own Home Secretary.
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
This would reignite small businesses and give BOOST to the economy.
We need to make working and setting up businesses worth it again !
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
A message to the North East, a region that means so very much to me, but it matters to each of you with these new almighty mayors too.
This is Kim McGuinness. The Labour Mayor who sat in a room with the Prime Minister and a table full of elected mayors last week and complained that your councils were getting in her way.
Her words: "They could stop me from doing it. And I don't think that's right, either on this or other things."
This was never just about a tourist tax. It's about who gets to decide what happens in your town.
I'm a County Durham lad. My grandad, and generations of my family before him, went down the pits here. My mam and dad met working in the factories of Stanley. I was brought up to believe that power belongs as close as possible to the people it affects. In your street. In your village. With the councillors you can stop in Tesco and give a piece of your mind.
So let me walk you through what's happened.
In 2024, Kim McGuinness stood for mayor promising a £1 a night charge on hotel rooms. A quid. A "small charge," she called it.
Now she wants a levy of up to 5% on every booking. On a £150 hotel room, that's £7.50 a night. Every hotel, B&B, guest house and holiday let in the region. That isn't the small charge she put in her manifesto. It's a massive escalation she never asked you about.
Then something happened she didn't plan for. You voted.
After she was elected, the people of Durham, Sunderland, Gateshead and South Tyneside put Reform in charge of their councils. Those are mandates every bit as real as hers, and more recent. In September, the four of us wrote to her asking her to rule this tax out. Northumberland's Conservatives oppose it too. That's five of the seven council leaders on her own cabinet, from two different parties.
So what was the first thing she did?
She didn't come back to us. She didn't try to change our minds. She went straight to the Prime Minister, in front of mayors from across the country, and asked for the power to overrule the councils you elected.
Let's be clear about what that means.
Devolution was supposed to take power out of Westminster and hand it back to communities. What Kim McGuinness wants is to take power out of Westminster and park it on one desk in Newcastle. Hers.
That isn't devolution. It's centralisation with a regional postcode. It reduces your local councils to powerless chambers with a car park.
She was asked to pick between the councils you elect to serve your community and more power for herself. She picked herself.
And she told the PM it wasn't just about this. "Other things," she said. So ask yourself what comes next. If your council can't stop her taxing visitors, can it stop a thousand homes going up on the edge of your village? A solar farm across good farmland? Turbines on your skyline? She wants the answer to be no.
Follow the money too. In that same meeting, which project did she talk up? Newcastle. She didn't name a single Durham town. Durham's guest houses collect it. Tyneside spends it.
Her reply to me in the Chronicle was 200 words on why her tax is wonderful. There wasn't a single word denying she'd asked the Prime Minister to overrule the leaders you elected.
Not one.
I don't think that's right. I don't think any of you voted for that. And I'm not going to sit quietly whilst it happens either.
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
Has your life improved in the last 100 days? In any way?
Have your bills gone down? Do you feel richer? Safer? Has your local community improved at all?
For the average person, the answer is a resounding NO.
Burnham is making tweaks as broken Britain slides further into terminal decline.
He’s a talker, not a doer. He hasn’t changed the country one bit so far, and isn’t going to.
We need fundamental change - and that's what I will bring.
In our first 100 days, we will:
Put the Royal Navy in the Channel and stop the boats forever.
Begin the mass exit of over 1 million people who illegally entered Britain.
We will make it impossible to live here illegally, so many will leave voluntarily. But, make no mistake, the deportation of those who don’t will be enforced.
We will increase your tax-free personal allowance from £12,570 to £15,000 to keep money in your pocket.
We’ll reduce your annual energy bills by £250.
We’ll charge NO interest on loans for nursing students, lift the cap on medical school places and cut student loan issuance by 20%.
If my ministers fail to deliver, I'll sack them. Simple as.
The stakes have never been higher. It's time we have a government that acts like it.
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
A Reform UK budget would cut waste and raise the tax free allowance to £15,000.
John Healey will cut the cost of gherkins.
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
Oh dear … here’s Precious Andy explaining in 2016 that the free movement of people has destroyed jobs in the UK…
He’ll say anything for power. But you must know that by now.
It’s just a race to the bottom hey Andy?
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
Burnham has absolutely no mandate to reopen the floodgates and destroy Britain's economy.
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
With any luck there won't be an EU for Andy to rejoin us too...
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2…
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
🔥🔥🔥Barnstorming speech🔥🔥🔥
Robert Jenrick's speech at the Reform UK economic rescue plan event from Westminster.
He outlines the detail in how Reform UK would run the UK economically. £40 billion of cuts to welfare, to net zero and foreign aid.
And yes, for the cultists there is a detailed document, though I think they might be too blinkered to read it.
All backed up with his offer to resign if he doesn't accomplish his promises, this is what we need an accountable government.
@RobertJenrick
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
"Reform's alternative budget released today includes many proposals that will finally get Britain's economy growing again.
Abolishing the Energy Profits Levy will play a crucial role in ensuring the country's energy security, which a recent ASI index ranked below Romania and Ukraine. Windfall taxes undermine the incentive on firms to be ready to drill when prices are high: without them, the UK's domestic energy supply will be far more secure, and the country will be less vulnerable to price hikes and energy crises. It will also lower electricity costs at a time of eye-wateringly high energy prices, which will cost the average family an extra £206 in the coming year.
The alternative budget's proposals will also give a desperately needed boost to housebuilding. Leaving the Aarhus convention, which paralyses planning reviews and raises costs for developers, will make it easier and faster to build new homes. Repealing Biodiversity Net Gain rules will also reduce costs and delays for housebuilders, 94% of which have been hit by delays due to the rule.
Taken together, these changes will mean more houses are built faster and for a lower cost - which will go a long way to solving Britain's housing crisis. If done right, planning deregulation like those proposed by this alternative budget could single-handedly raise long-run GDP by 7.05% - a rise of almost £3,000 per person."
- Silvia Andreoletti, Head of Communications
Cllr Andrew Husband / Reform Leader Durham retweeted
We are ready and waiting to turn the economy around 🇬🇧🚀
Here is the key page in Robert Jenrick’s Economic Rescue Plan. Would other parties be this bold so far from a general election? More at @GBNEWS.
